Google Glass has spawned a closet industry bringing new, often innovative accessories and applications to Google’s first wearable item. Not all ideas work, as befits the prototype status of Google Glass, but those that do have a very real chance to color both near and long term evolution the device and platform. And let’s not forget that Google Glass hasn’t had the smoothest of rides since inception: wearers have been assaulted, “invited to leave” establishments and ridiculed publicly for being part of the bleeding edge of wearable technology. We believe that Glass is getting closer to a commercial release and the hardware looks like it’s getting something of a makeover (Intel are reckoned to be a frontrunner to supply the hardware), which perhaps means that accessory manufacturers need to be careful launching a new product associated with the current iteration of Glass.

However, Round Concept have thrown this caution to the wind and are announcing their Google Glass thermal imaging accessory, Third Eye, at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show), Las Vegas. This camera attachment may be fixed to the side of the Google Glass frame and sends the thermal imaging camera feed to you via the augmented reality overlay. Now, interestingly enough it doesn’t have to be attached to Glass’ frame, indeed it may be used in a number of alternative mounting accessories also developed by Round Concept. I’m sure that Round Concept will develop a new mount for the next generation of Google Glass. It may be used by any device capable of image processing. Typically, this would mean smartphones.

Quite frankly, the idea of an infrared thermal imaging overlay via Google Glass sounds awesome to my ears. It’ll give me a means of surprising my cat, as he has successfully adapted to my relatively poor night vision. There are a multitude of potential uses including the law enforcement services and, typically, homeland security could use this accessory to help identify passengers running a fever and could help the spread of Ebola. Because Glass is customizable either with applications developed for it or through replacing the firmware, it would not be difficult to produce the necessary software to make this potential detection process automatic. We don’t yet have availability or pricing, but we will keep you in the loop when we do. Meanwhile, let is know what you think in the comments below.